[kitchi]

So rather than blanket surveillance, wouldn't it make more sense for the government to build a case against a suspect, and then issue a warrant to track their behaviour etc?

Unless the assumption is that all citizens of a country are potentially enemies of the state and we are all highly trained spies operating under deep cover for years...

[hunglee2]

the question would be 'building a case' - how would do you this if you didn't conduct some sort of profiling? The entire purpose of national security apparatus is to identify enemies of the state before they are able to act. Do you think this is always unjustified? Genuine question, don't know the answer myself!